1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an execution of a game implemented by users of three or more terminal devices alternately carrying out a prescribed game input for a game progression.
2. Related Art
To date, there being a game machine which transmits and receives information by means of a wireless communication function between itself and one or more other game machine, there has been a communication game system which implements a game by connecting two or more of this kind of game machine to each other (for example, refer to JP-A-2002-292122). Naturally, the communication between this kind of game machine not being guaranteed to be in an intact condition, there may appear a game machine in which the communication with another game machine is cut off due to a movement to an area removed from the other game machine, a dead battery, a failure of a device, or an effect of noise or the like occurring in a periphery.
In the event that the communication is cut off in a portion of the game machines which have been carrying out the game thus far, there has been no option but to continue the game with only the remaining game machines in which the communication is still in a connected condition. In this case, players participating in the game are reduced by one. As there are many of this kind of game in which an enjoyment of the game lies in it being implemented by a large number of players participating, each player, even in this kind of case, feels a desire to continue the game smoothly, without reducing the number of players participating.
However, a communication game system which executes this kind of game machine, as a hardware configuration, is a network system in which a plurality of computer devices are connected to each other in such a way that the communication is possible. That the communication of one portion of the game machines has been cut off means only that one portion of the computer devices in the network system has crashed. Although not thinking especially of the execution of the game, a duplex system which has an active system and a standby system can be considered for continuing a process even when one portion of the computer devices has crashed (for example, refer to JP-A-1-195544).
However, in order to configure a kind of duplex system of JP-A-1-195544, it is necessary to prepare a standby system game machine which is completely unnecessary when a game is progressing normally. Also, even in the event that the standby system game machine can be prepared, in the event that a player of a game machine in which a communication has been cut off has disappeared, or the like, there is a problem of who is to play on the standby system game machine. Depending on a nature of a game being executed, in the event that one person plays the game as a plurality of players, the game itself is not essentially established.
Meanwhile, even by severing the game machine in which the communication has been cut off and continuing the game with only the remaining game machines, depending on the nature of the game being executed, it may happen that the game itself is not essentially established hereon. For example, it is a case of a mah-jong game or the like in which a number of players is fixed. In this kind of case, even in a condition in which the remaining game machines can still carry out the communication between each other, there has been no option but to complete the game at that point.